Making Appointments for Doctor or Dinner

Jennifer Brinn, a Reiki therapist, says she has added many clients since she began making appointments online.Credit
Jim Wilson/The New York Times

THE e-commerce bandwagon bypassed millions of carpenters, massage therapists, lawyers and other service providers, mostly because it is impossible to drop an appointment into a shopping cart without unleashing a scheduling nightmare.

Now that a set of Internet start-up companies has emerged to help solve this problem, though, small businesses could start using the Web as more than just an online brochure. And while the category is too new for analysts to handicap with much confidence, there are signs it could gain a significant following.

“This is something that’s been needed for a while, but no one has been able to do it successfully,” said Greg Sterling, of Sterling Marketplace Intelligence, an online consultancy. “With these new services, there are a lot of circumstances where it can work quite well for both the business and the consumer.”

When Jennifer Brinn opened a practice in massage and Reiki (a Japanese stress-reduction technique) in San Francisco in 2003, she relied on a day planner and lots of “e-mail and phone tag” to book appointments. Last year, she began testing HourTown, an online booking service started by a former product designer for PayPal, Ryan Donahue.

HourTown, like its competitors, BookingAngel and Genbook, is an online calendar tool, with a twist. Users fill the calendar with personal and business appointments, but they can also transmit to the Web any blocks of time they would like to make available for business appointments. Customers can book a time directly from the service provider’s Web site, or, in the case of Ms. Brinn, they can reserve a slot and wait for her to confirm the appointment with an e-mail. Either way, it is free for customers.

Last year, Ms. Brinn started buying text advertising on Google around the same time she added the HourTown booking technology to her site (www.jbrinn.com), and since that time her client base has doubled to more than 200. HourTown, she said, helps her attract more impulse buyers.

“This area is very saturated with holistic healing professionals,” Ms. Brinn said. “A service like this is a luxury for people, so they have the opportunity to lose the momentum. But with this, you click, see what’s available and make an appointment.”

The service saves at least two hours a day of e-mailing and calling, Ms. Brinn estimated, making it well worth the $20 or $30 a month HourTown will charge starting on Monday, when it finishes its testing phase.

Mr. Donahue, of HourTown, said the company had attracted more than 2,000 businesses so far and had helped make more than 10,000 appointments. HourTown relies on its businesses to spread the word of the service. Some, Mr. Donahue said, have invited more than 200 of their clients to use it.

HourTown will also transmit scheduling information for its businesses to search engines and online Yellow Pages directories. In the future, however, those directories may be more likely to post the schedules of businesses that work with BookingAngel, which is based in Sydney, Australia, and which made its debut in the United States this month.

Dean McEvoy, BookingAngel’s chief executive, said online directories were more likely to use his service because it charges businesses a per-booking charge rather than a subscription fee. One client, LA.com, a Los Angeles city guide, said it would soon begin posting ìbook nowî buttons near its restaurant listings and would add similar buttons for other businesses listed on the site.

Mr. McEvoy said restaurants now use the service free, but they will be charged $3.50 a booking in the future, with BookingAngel and LA.com splitting the revenue. The service, he added, is also being tested with doctors and building contractors in Australia.

Genbook, another Australian import, entered the United States market late last year, with a new round of financing from Neo Technology Ventures, a Sydney company, and a subscription-based approach similar to that of HourTown.

Frank Thibodeau, Genbook’s vice president for business development, said the company has attracted thousands of clients and hopes to get a boost from deals signed recently with undisclosed online directories and Web site builders. The company, he said, offers a free version of its service to businesses and an upgraded version that costs $40 monthly.

Mr. Sterling, the industry analyst, said one weakness in the online booking model is that businesses with more expensive services, and their first-time customers, often need to speak directly to determine what type of work is required and to establish a price. An interior decorator, general contractor or divorce lawyer, for instance, might qualify.

Mr. Sterling said ZocDoc, which operates in New York and started late last year, is trying to overcome this hurdle by also posting reviews of the city’s medical providers, so users have more confidence when booking for the first time.

Mr. Thibodeau said that whatever hurdles these companies face in the short term are dwarfed by the opportunity.

“The thing to remember,” he said, “is there are far more small service businesses than small merchants.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on page C6 of the New York edition with the headline: Making Appointments for Doctor or Dinner. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe